The influential playmaker has attracted plenty of interest from officials this term
Matt Crooks had admitted his frustrations (Image: Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Matt Crooks admits he’s been left frustrated by the number of bookings he’s picked up this season, as he sits top of the Championship’s charts for yellow cards.
The experienced Hull City playmaker sits at the top of the tree with 12 bookings from his 25 games, but after coming through Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham City unscathed, he looks like avoiding another ban.
Already forced to miss three games after reaching five and then 10 cautions, the ex-Middlesbrough ace could have faced a three-game ban had he got to 15, but with only three games left, he can rest a little easier with yellow cards not carried into the play-offs. Crooks feels that his size often goes against him, compared to others who perhaps are not quite as big and cumbersome.
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“I’ve worked hard all my career,” Crooks joked when asked how it felt to be on the verge of collecting the bad boy crown. “That’s one thing I get with the refs. We had a meeting with the referees at the start of the season, and I said I just get booked because I’m bigger than everyone else.
“I’m 100 kg, 6’5. If it’s Liam Millar that’s fouling someone in the same way that I do, it’s not gonna get the same treatment, and they were like, ‘no, no, no’. Then you try to speak to them during the game as well, and they don’t give you any answers, so it’s frustrating, but I think we’ve spoken about refs enough probably this week.
“That’s true, I got away with one, yeah, yeah,” he said with a wry smile after it was put to him that he got away with the booking at Birmingham City when John Egan was booked instead of him.
“It’s been in the back of my mind, obviously, I knew where I was at regarding the bans and stuff. Subconsciously, maybe, thinking about it, but hopefully I’ve got through.
“I feel like if I put pressure on someone or my weight on someone, they’re more likely to go down, which will then be a foul. If I’m doing it consistently, I’m gonna get booked for it. IF someone does it to me, I’m bigger, so I’m less likely to go down, so then I don’t necessarily get the foul, or I’m big, so (the referees say), ‘Why are you going down?’ I can’t win either way, but I’ve been playing for 12 years now, so I should be used to it.”
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